This invention relates to a reduction port for a laparoscopic trocar sleeve. This invention also relates to an associated method for use in laparoscopic surgery.
Laparoscopic surgery entails the piercing of the abdominal wall with a trocar and the disposition of a tubular sleeve or cannula in the perforated wall. Various instruments may be inserted through the trocar sleeve or cannula to perform surgical operations inside the abdomen.
Generally, upon the disposition of the first trocar sleeve so that it traverses the abdominal wall, the abdominal cavity is pressurized with carbon dioxide to distend the abdominal wall and provide a safety region between the wall and the body organs inside the cavity. Moreover, several perforations are made. One perforation receives a laparoscope which enables visual monitoring of organs and surgical activities inside the abdominal cavity. Other perforations serve for the insertion of different surgical instruments.
During the course of a laparoscopic procedure, a surgical instrument extending through one trocar sleeve into the patient may have performed its function, while another instrument is needed. In that case the first instrument is withdrawn from the patient's abdominal cavity through its respective trocar sleeve, while the second instrument is inserted. Frequently, these instruments have shafts of different diameters. Consequently, a port element attached to the proximal end of the trocar sleve must be removed and replaced with another port element having an aperture of a diameter corresponding to that of the shaft of the second laparoscopic instrument. In this way, the leakage of carbon dioxide through the laparoscopic ports is reduced.
The port elements attached to the proximal ends of the trocar sleeves serve to reduce the effective diameters of the respective trocar sleeves and for that reason are termed "reducing" or "reduction" ports.
A disadvantage of the conventional technique is the time required to exchange port elements. For each differently sized laparoscopic instrument, there must be a corresponding part element, which increases the effort needed to keep track of all the laparoscopic instruments and ancillary devices.